Wednesday, April 15, 2015

We're good. Spent the weekend laying low. We had dinner at Hyde Oark with Mom and Dad on Saturday. Ryan and Jamie stopped by on Sunday, and I got to wish Ryan a happy 40th birthday in person. Sunday night I had band practice with just Reed. It was good. Mostly we're just WAITING FOR THE BABY!!!!

Wednesday, April 08, 2015

Hey!
So now we're mostly just hanging in there and waiting for the baby to arrive. We're excited and nervous and trying to wrap our heads around what's happening. It's a big deal. We're happy to have friends and family to support us!
On Friday night I don't think we did too much. We ordered pizza, and we watched The Hunt for Red October. Amy had never seen it before, and she said that she enjoyed it. I've seen it a number of times, but it's always fun. With a cast that includes Sean Connery, Alec Baldwin, James Earl Jones, San Neill, Tim Curry, Courtney B. Vance, Peter Firth, and Fred Thompson all competing to chew up scenery, it's a movie that's easy to find entertaining. I grew up watching Hunt for Red October. We quoted lines from that movie to one another in high school.
Upon our most recent viewing, the movie's still really enjoyable to watch as an action thriller, but it's also a sort of fascinating glimpse into the later cold war era. The cast is made up almost entirely of men- a fact that seemed entirely plausible when the movie depicted the upper echelons of the military and intelligence community ranks in 1990. Nowadays, of course, audiences might find an entire film about an epic naval misadventure to be a little lacking without the appearance of an occasional female officer, spy, or politician.
Maybe more interesting is the simple fact that wars in 2015 just aren't playing out in the same way that they played out in 1990. The cold war was about a face off between two superpowers- a constant chess match between two wealthy, powerful countries. The threats that the U.S. and the Soviet Union posed to each other were somewhat balanced and bilateral. Each country was developing technology at breakneck speed in order to try to outperform the other, and each country was constantly improving upon tactics and strategy in order to try to gain an advantage. All of this stuff was, of course, incredibly expensive and could really only occur within the context of two extremely powerful nations duking it out.
Our current enemies wage a war of fear and terror, more typically relying upon relatively primitive weapons to attack vulnerable populations. Our most recent wars have been counter insurgencies- our troops tasked with hunting down guerrillas and ferreting out terrorists who are hidden amongst native populations. Without an enemy as powerful as ourselves to directly challenge us in battle, our warfare no longer involves a race against our enemies to develop expensive, advanced vehicles and weapons. Perhaps more accurately, the U.S. still continues to develop advanced weapons, but we're frequently developing them for use against an enemy who fights back with homemade roadside explosives and surplus military weapons left over from previous wars.
To a large degree, the nature of our conflicts has changed.
Annnyway, the movie was interesting on a number of levels- at least one of those being the sense of historical perspective that's now offered by what was a simple popcorn flick from my youth.

On Saturday we mostly laid low. We did a little shopping and took care of a few chores. I went and tried out our new gym, LA Fitness that we joined over on South Lamar. We joined the gym because we're hoping that we can get some good use out of it after the kiddo comes (it has a daycare inside it that we can use once bebe is about 6 months old). The gym was pretty nice. I got a good workout.
Saturday night we had dinner with Ryan and Jamie at Thai Passion. Dinner was good. The food was good, and it was nice to have a chance to hang out and talk to Ryan and Jamie. We hung out at their house for a little while after dinner. It was really pleasant.
Sunday morning I got up and went to church with Mom and Dad for Easter. Amy was feeling really tired and a little uncomfortable (back pain, mostly), so she sat this year out.
Church was nice. Mom and Dad's church did a good Easter service.

The rest of the day was pretty laid back. We did some reading and a few chores. We finished listening the the Serial podcast (I still think the convicted guy did it). Ryan and Jamie popped in for a few minutes in the evening, dropping off some leftovers from a dinner that they had attended at my parents' house and chatting with us for a bit.

It was a good weekend. Pretty mellow. We got some rest.
Baby is coming...